Are suitcase nukes an urban legen or a threat?

Answer 1

During the cold war these weapons existed. However they were destroyed by both the US and Russia almost a decade ago.

The technical challenges of building a 'suitcase nuke' are great enough that it would take years for a nation that already possesses nuclear weapons to develop one.

Answer 2

The rumor is that over 200 suitcase bombs are missing after the cold war from the former soviet republics. Since then the Russians have revised their statement for political face saving or truth who knows. These weapons are small enough to be carried by a single person regardless of the size. The munition could destroy about a square mile, so although extremely deadly is not big enough to destroy an entire city. Obviously, this is not the only threat. There are nuclear pieces on the black market being traded even in the news today of a sting operation for 3.5 ounces of weapons grade uranium. South Africa has nuclear weapons no one new of or even talks about today and that is in the continent of Africa! Regardless of who and what, there is a critical danger in the world today.

Answer 3

Of those choices, a threat. Suitcase nukes have never been officially reported, but both the US and USSR made nukes that could fit inside a suitcase (only 51 lbs) during the cold war. Here is a link to more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitcase_bomb

If they had this during the cold war, imagine what could have been developed in the last 20 years.....

Answer 4

Theoretically (and in fact) it only takes about 40 lbs (18 kg) of refined U-235 in 2 pieces, properly slammed together with an accompanying neutron flux to create a Hiroshima grade blast.
The quantity is less with plutonium to achieve the same energy level detonation.... Add that to the fact there are now existing nuclear weapons fired from less than 6" artillery (155mm?) do the math.

Answer 5

They are real. The Russians developed them back in the 1960's. But, you've got to understand they are in the very, very low fraction of a kiloton range for a yield.

The American military also developed nuclear artillery shells in this low range.

We're talking about a couple city blocks of total destruction with damage out to maybe a 1/4 or 1/2 mile. Not, exactly the stuff you see on TV that takes out a city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitcase_bomb

Production (suitcase nukes)
Only a nation with an extremely advanced nuclear program could manufacture warheads small enough to fit into a suitcase. Both the USA and the USSR manufactured nuclear weapons small enough to fit into large backpacks during the Cold War, but neither have ever made public the existence or development of weapons small enough to fit into a suitcase. The smallest nuclear warhead manufactured by the USA was the W54, used for the Davy Crockett warhead which could be fired from a 120 mm recoilless rifle, and a backpack version called the Mk-54 SADM (Small Atomic Demolition Munition). While this warhead, with a weight of only 51 lb (23 kg), could potentially fit into a large suitcase, it would be a very tight fit. While the explosive power of the W54 — up to an equivalent of 1 kiloton of TNT — is not much by the normal standards of a nuclear weapon (the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II were around 13 to 15 kilotons each), it could still do tremendous physical damage to a structure (it would be many, many times more powerful than the explosive attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1995, for example, with a yield of 0.002 kiloton).

The technology required to manufacture a nuclear warhead miniaturized to such an extent that it could fit into a suitcase restricts the independent development of "suitcase nukes" to only nations with highly advanced nuclear weapons programs which have performed many nuclear tests.


[edit] Controversy (suitcase nukes)
In 1997, former Russian National Security Advisor Alexander Lebed made public claims about lost "suitcase nukes" following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In an interview with the newsmagazine Sixty Minutes, Lebed said:

"I'm saying that more than a hundred weapons out of the supposed number of 250 are not under the control of the armed forces of Russia. I don't know their location. I don't know whether they have been destroyed or whether they are stored or whether they've been sold or stolen, I don't know."
However both the US and Russian governments immediately rejected Lebed's claims. Russia's atomic energy ministry went so far as to dispute that suitcase nuclear weapons had even ever been developed by the Soviet Union. Later testimony however insinuated that the suitcase bombs had been under the control of the KGB and not the army or the atomic energy ministry, so they might not know of their existence. Russian president Vladimir Putin, in an interview with Barbara Walters in 2001, stated about suitcase nukes, "I don't really believe this is true. These are just legends. One can probably assume that somebody tried to sell some nuclear secrets. But there is no documentary confirmation of those developments."

The Russian government's statements on this matter have been contradictory. First they denied that such weapons had ever existed; then they said that all of them had been destroyed. However, the highest-ranking GRU defector Stanislav Lunev confirmed that such Russian-made devices do exist and described them in more detail [1]. These devices, “identified as RA-115s (or RA-115-01s for submersible weapons)” weigh from fifty to sixty pounds. They can last for many years if wired to an electric source. “In case there is a loss of power, there is a battery backup. If the battery runs low, the weapon has a transmitter that sends a coded message – either by satellite or directly to a GRU post at a Russian embassy or consulate.” According to Lunev, the number of “missing” nuclear devices (as found by General Lebed) “is almost identical to the number of strategic targets upon which those bombs would be used”. He suggested that they might be already deployed by the GRU operatives somewhere.

Whether or not Russian "suitcase nukes" exist, the threat of the old Soviet nuclear arsenal falling into malicious hands has been behind many American and Russian joint-initiatives after the Cold War to bolster Russia's ability to keep its nuclear weapons secure and accounted for, while the amount of weapons is being scaled down as well.

Answer 6

If they could manufacture nuclear artillery and naval shells in the 1970's (which they did), don't you think they could manufacture a "suitcase nuke" in this day and age?

Of course they're real, and of course they're a threat.

Answer 7

Yes they exist. They are usually referred to as ADMs (Atomic Demolition Munitions) The SADM (Special ADM) was about 120 pounds and was expected to be carried by one person as a backpack.

You would need a big suitcase or trunk but one would fit.

Answer 8

I suppose it's an urban legend for now, because it would be quite difficult to make one, but it is possible and feasible so I guess it's a threat as well.

Answer 9

I really don't think a nuke would fit into a suitcase either. Now a regular bomb would. A nuke though, naw.

Answer 10

Do you know how big and heavy a nuke is? Neither do I, but I bet it is too big for a suitcase.